**4.3. Basic hybridization program in mainland China**

was the major cultivars released by Chinese breeding program. These achievements were contributed to the increasing seedling scales and the inputs for breeding program. Substantial financial support from the government for the long term provides an excellent chance for sugarcane improvement. In Guangxi, the cross combination number increased up to 500–1000, and total seedling numbers to 100,000–400,000 since 2002. The highest seedling number reached 600,000 in 2012. In Fujian, Yunnan, and Guangdong, the situations are almost same as Guangxi.

**Institute name Location Abbreviated Chinese name and** 

Guangxi University, Guangxi Nanning, Guangxi Zhongzhe—ZZ Zhang MQ

Sugarcane Breeding Station, GSIRI Yacheng, Hainan YaCheng—YC Liu SM Sugarcane Research Institute Kaiyuan and Ruili Yunzhe—YZ Wu CW

Guangzhou, Guangdong

Guangxi Sugarcane Research Institute, Guangxi, Academy of Agricultural

54 Sugarcane - Technology and Research

Liucheng Sugarcane Research Institute,

Guangzhou Sugarcane Industry Research Institute (GSIRI)

Yunnan Academy of Agricultural

Hainan Sugarcane Research Center, Chinese Academy of Tropical Crop

Sugarcane Synthetic Research Institute, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry

Sugarcane Research Institute, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Science (FAAS)

Science (GAAS)

Science (YAAS)

University (FAFU)

Guangxi

**prefix of varieties selected at** 

Nanning, Guangxi GuiTang—GT Yang RZ, Wang

YueGan—YG; Yuetan—YT Qi YW

Liuchen, Guangxi Liucheng—LC Lu WX

Yunnan YunRui—YR Jing YF

Haikou, Hainan Zhongtang—ZT Yang BP

Fuzhou, Fujian Funong—FN Deng ZH

Zhangzhou, Fujian Mintang—MT Pan SM

**Breeders**

LW

**each location**

A large number of overseas sugarcane varieties have been introduced into mainland China since 1930, such as CP series from USA, Q series from Australia, PR series from Puerto Rico, RB series from Brazil, F and ROC series from Taiwan, China, and POJ series from Philippines. After quarantine, most of them have been used as parental clones in the breeding program in China. However, some introduced varieties were suitable for commercial production in some cane growing areas and adopted directly as cultivars. POJ2725, POJ2878, and POJ2883 were firstly introduced from the Philippines, and Badila from Australia, but only POJ2878 and POJ2725 became major varieties for sugar production in China in 1930s. F134 and Co419 (originally from India) were introduced to the mainland from Taiwan in 1947. F134 became the most popular variety in the sugarcane growing areas in mainland China until early 1980.

**4.2. Introduced sugarcane varieties in mainland China**

**Table 1.** The main sugarcane research institutes in different provinces in mainland China.

China, one of the diversity centers of *Saccharum* complex, is rich in sugarcane germplasm resources. Since 1980s, Chinese sugarcane breeders have collected a large number of wild cane resources from different provinces and overseas and maintained most of these in the National Sugarcane Germplasm Nursery, Kaiyuan City, Yunnan province. Among them, *S. spontaneum* and *Erianthus arundinaceus* are more prominent than other wild species (**Table 2**).

A basic breeding program was established for crossing the local *S. spontaneum* at Yacheng with *Saccharum officinarum* (Badila and other noble cane) in 1953. Several F1 progenies have been released and widely used in the Chinese breeding program, including YC58-43, YC58-47, Ya71- 374, and Ya73-512, which in turn have produced a lot of commercial varieties, respectively. In addition, more attentions were paid to the germplasm innovation by exchanging germplasm with other countries, utilizing local wild germplasm collections, such as *S. spontaneum*, *E. arundinaceus*, and *Narenga porphyrocoma*, which were crossed and backcrossed with commercial sugarcane varieties. Some promising clones have been selected from BC1 to BC4 progenies [10].

The genus *Erianthus* is one of the important wild relatives to sugarcane and has attracted considerable interest from sugarcane breeders worldwide for many decades. Within the genus *Erianthus*, most species including *Erianthus arundinaceus*, *Erianthus fulvus,* and *Erianthus rockii* have many superior traits for sugarcane improvement, such as high biomass, vigor, ratooning ability, tolerance to abiotic stresses caused by drought and water logging, and resistance to biotic stresses arising from various pathogens and pests [11]. In order to transfer desirable traits from the genus *Erianthus* into sugarcane, sugarcane has been hybridized with the genus *Erianthus* in China since 1990. In general, *S. officinarum* was usually used as female parent for speeding up the nobilization progress of *Erianthus*, and a series of intergeneric F1 hybrids between *S. officinarum* and *Erianthus* have been obtained successfully. However, the resulting F1 progeny could not be backcrossed directly to sugarcane as male parents due to pollen sterility [12]. Hence, the F1 progeny between *S. officinarum* and *Erianthus* were used as female parents to backcross with sugarcane, and a number of


**4.4. Selection program in mainland China**

The selection programs conducted in China are almost the same in all research institutes or universities in mainland China. Clones are first tested in an experiment station at each institute or university for 5–6 years, followed by testing at multiple sites (regional trial) outside the original institute for 4–5 years. In addition to selection schemes operated by each individual institute, China began a new project to evaluate sugarcane varieties in a nationally coordinated series of trials in 1996. The project was named the National Sugarcane Variety Cooperative Regional Test (NSVCRT) and was coordinated by Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and supported by Crop Variety Examination and Approval Committee, Ministry of Agriculture in China. Till now, a total of 141 sugarcane varieties were tested in the nationwide regional test and 89 were determined for production test in 14 sites from three sugarcane major ecological zones, *viz.* the Southern China Inland Ecological Cultivation Zone, the Southwestern Plateau Ecological Cultivation Zone, and the Southern China Coastal Ecological Cultivation Zone (**Table 3**) [17]. The released cultivars were evaluated on sucrose content, tillering capacity, yield potential, good field appearance, slight thick and long stalks,

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**Variety name Female parent Male parent Identified by Released year**

GT91-116 (GT19) ROC1 YC85-55 National 2005 GT93-103 (GT23) ROC1 YC71-374 National 2005 GT94-116 (GT24) GT71-5 YC84-153 National 2005 GT96-44 (GT25) CP72-1210 YC71-374 National 2005 GT96-211 (GT26) Pindar GT11 National 2007 GT86-267 (GT16) YT59-65 Ya72-399 National 1999 GT84-332 (GT15) HN56-12 Neijian59-782 National 1999 GT89-5 (GT17) GT11 YC62-40 National 1999 GT94-119 (GT21) GZ75-65 YC71-374 National 2005 GT90-95 (GT18) CP65-357 F172 Guangxi 2001 YT89-240 (YT48) CP72-1210 GT11 National 2005 YT91-976 (YT49) YN73-204 CP67-412 National 2005 YT91-1102 (YT51) YN73-204 YT84-3 National 2007 YT93-159 YN73-204 CP72-1210 Guangdong 2001 YT85-177 YT57-423 CP57-614 + CP72-1312 National 1999 YT96-835 (YT49) Co419 ROC10 National 2007 YT96-86 (YT50) YT85-177 Zang74-141 National 2007 FN91-3623 CP72-1210 GT11 National 2002 FN91-4621 CP72-1210 Zang74-141 National 2002

**Table 2.** Sugarcane germplasms conserved in the National Sugarcane Germplasm Nursery, (Kaiyuan City, Yunnan; 103.23E, 23.70N).

backcrossing lines have been successfully generated in the past 20 years. *S. spontaneum* was used as a bridge species for the introgression of *E. arundinaceus*, due to *S. spontaneum* with a good source of incorporating fertility in order to overcome the pollen sterility of F1 progeny between *Saccharum* and *Erianthus* [13]. So far, a series of fertility F1 progeny between *S. spontaneum* and *Erianthus* had been obtained. Verification of the introgression of *E. arundinaceus* lineage into sugarcane is an essential way in sugarcane improvement. Over the past two decades, a number of genuine intergeneric hybrids between *Saccharum* and *E. arundinaceus* have been verified and patented using sequence-tagged microsatellite site (STMS), 5S rDNA sequences, 45S rDNA sequences, and inter-Alu sequences [14, 15]. Genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) has been used to identify genuine intergeneric hybrids between *Saccharum* and *E. arundinaceus* and to track the introgression of *E. arundinaceus* lineage into sugarcane. In addition, to detect the chromosomal rearrangement between *Saccharum* and *Erianthus* in the intergeneric high-generation progeny [9, 16], some promising clones (BC2-BC5) have been bred from the cross between *Erianthus* and *Saccharum*, such as YC04-55, YC05-64, YC05-164, YC06-92, YC06-140, YC06-166, YC07-65, YC07-71, YC07-74, YC06-111, YC06-61, YC06-63, YC06-91, and YC05-150.

#### **4.4. Selection program in mainland China**

backcrossing lines have been successfully generated in the past 20 years. *S. spontaneum* was used as a bridge species for the introgression of *E. arundinaceus*, due to *S. spontaneum* with a

**Table 2.** Sugarcane germplasms conserved in the National Sugarcane Germplasm Nursery, (Kaiyuan City, Yunnan;

*taneum* and *Erianthus* had been obtained. Verification of the introgression of *E. arundinaceus* lineage into sugarcane is an essential way in sugarcane improvement. Over the past two decades, a number of genuine intergeneric hybrids between *Saccharum* and *E. arundinaceus* have been verified and patented using sequence-tagged microsatellite site (STMS), 5S rDNA sequences, 45S rDNA sequences, and inter-Alu sequences [14, 15]. Genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) has been used to identify genuine intergeneric hybrids between *Saccharum* and *E. arundinaceus* and to track the introgression of *E. arundinaceus* lineage into sugarcane. In addition, to detect the chromosomal rearrangement between *Saccharum* and *Erianthus* in the intergeneric high-generation progeny [9, 16], some promising clones (BC2-BC5) have been bred from the cross between *Erianthus* and *Saccharum*, such as YC04-55, YC05-64, YC05-164, YC06-92, YC06-140, YC06-166, YC07-65, YC07-71, YC07-74, YC06-111, YC06-61,

progeny

progeny between *S. spon-*

good source of incorporating fertility in order to overcome the pollen sterility of F1

between *Saccharum* and *Erianthus* [13]. So far, a series of fertility F1

**Genus Species name Number** *Saccharum officinarum* L. *S. officinarum* 32

*Erianthus* Michaux. *E. fulvus* 63

*Narenga* Bor *N. porphyrocoma* 11 *Miscanthus* Anderss. *M. floridulus* 2

*Imperata* Cyr. *I. cylindrica* 23 *Pennisetum* Rich. *P. schumach* 6

*S. barberi* 3 *S. sinense* 25 *S. robustum* 6 *S. spontaneum* 690 Local cultivar and fruit cane 96 Oversea sugarcane cultivars 665 Domestic cultivars 686

*E. rockii* 51 *E. arundinaceum* 290

*M. sinensis* 31

*Pennisetum* spp. 2 Total 2682

YC06-63, YC06-91, and YC05-150.

103.23E, 23.70N).

56 Sugarcane - Technology and Research

The selection programs conducted in China are almost the same in all research institutes or universities in mainland China. Clones are first tested in an experiment station at each institute or university for 5–6 years, followed by testing at multiple sites (regional trial) outside the original institute for 4–5 years. In addition to selection schemes operated by each individual institute, China began a new project to evaluate sugarcane varieties in a nationally coordinated series of trials in 1996. The project was named the National Sugarcane Variety Cooperative Regional Test (NSVCRT) and was coordinated by Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and supported by Crop Variety Examination and Approval Committee, Ministry of Agriculture in China. Till now, a total of 141 sugarcane varieties were tested in the nationwide regional test and 89 were determined for production test in 14 sites from three sugarcane major ecological zones, *viz.* the Southern China Inland Ecological Cultivation Zone, the Southwestern Plateau Ecological Cultivation Zone, and the Southern China Coastal Ecological Cultivation Zone (**Table 3**) [17]. The released cultivars were evaluated on sucrose content, tillering capacity, yield potential, good field appearance, slight thick and long stalks,



soil reserves. In general, most sugarcane roots are close to the surface and then decline exponentially with depth, which is approximately 50% of root in the top 20 cm of soil and 85% in the top 60 cm. Thus, the moisture extraction pattern from different soil layers follows the root distribution. The percentage of roots in the top 0–20 cm was 62.0%, 23.4% from 20 to 40 cm, 8.8% from 40 to 60 cm, 4.4% from 60 to 80 cm, and less than 1.4% from 80 to 120 cm. Thus, the

Sugarcane requires a large amount of water at about 645-738.6 tons per year (**Figure 5**) and

long duration crop of 10–14 months in China and since it produces huge amounts of biomass. The water requirement of sugarcane is dependent on its growth phase, 8.3% in the seedling, 21.7% in the tillering, more than 56.9% in the elongation, and 13.0% at the maturity. In southern China, the rainfall is enough for sugarcane growth. However, unbalanced distribution of the rainfalls does not match up with the sugarcane growth stage, so sugarcane always suffers from the drought, especially in the Spring and Autumn. More than 80% of sugarcane requires irrigation in China. In recent years, water-saving irrigation practices are developing fast in China, including spray, microspray, and drip irrigations [19]. The fertigation practices coupled application of this water-saving irrigation with fertilization save a lot of water, fertilizer and labor, and improve fertilizer-use efficiency [20]. The fertilizer concentrations in fertigation practice ranged from 0.1 to 0.2% in the seedling phase and 0.2 to 0.3% in the tillering and elongation phase. No any fertilizer is applied in the maturity phase. Fertigation increased cane productivity by 19.2–56.4% and fertilizer-use efficiency by 90%. It also saved water by 30–60%.

In dry upland sugarcane areas, fertigation practices are becoming popular since 2000s.

Compared with the conventional application methods, fertigation practices showed several distinct advantages (**Table 5**), including more even distribution of nutrients in the root area, decrease in the losses of nutrient and water, increase in the uptake of nutrient, less labor, and

Sugarcane is vegetatively propagated for commercial cultivation. Different kinds of planting materials *viz.*, cane setts, settlings, and bud chips are used for raising sugarcane crop. Generally, two-bud setts are used for planting in China, while in some areas, three-bud setts

O5

and 300 kg/ha of K<sup>2</sup>

O (**Table 4**) since it is a

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moisture extraction pattern from different soil layers follows the root distribution.

fertilizers at 300-330 kg/ha of N, 90-120 kg/ha of P<sup>2</sup>

equipment required.

**5.2. Healthy seed cane program**

**Figure 5.** Daily water evaporation in sugarcane field (mm).

\* Variety identified by National means that the variety is approved to plant in main production provinces in order to achieve higher sugar yield. Identified by one province means can only be grown in this province; before extending in other provinces, further testing may need to be done in those provinces.

**Table 3.** Part of new varieties bred in recent 20 years and their parents.

long internodes, nonlodging, nonflowering or shy flowering, erect growing habit, absence of spines on the leaf sheaths, good ratooning ability, less bud sprouting, absence of splits on the stalks, and resistance to local abiotic and biotic stress [18].
